A mother who conceived a child after being raped at 15 years old has encouraged other victims that abortion is never “your only option”.
In an interview with Students for Life of America, Ayala Isenberg said that despite “four years of being horrifically abused” and being “raped more times than I can count”, she loved her child and believed she was “deserving of life”.
Tragically, Ayala suffered an early miscarriage and never got to meet her daughter, whom she named Rachel, but she is determined to use her experience to help others in her situation.
‘Disgusting’
The 19-year-old emphasised that “abortion has nothing to do with healing from the rape”, as it only adds “additional trauma” through a child being “violently taken” from their mother.
Ayala lamented that she has been “shouted down so many times” by abortion activists who “don’t really care that much about us as people, they care about using our narrative to push their narrative”.
abortion has nothing to do with healing from the rape
She reflected that when she told one woman: “I got pregnant from rape when I was fifteen and I loved my baby and I felt she was deserving of life”, the person “completely changed her demeanour” and told Ayala “you’re disgusting”.
Ayala said: “It is proof that a lot of the women and a lot of the narratives they put out about sexual assault and abortion – it is incredibly performative, it’s incredibly pandering, and it’s not honest in any way shape or form because of the way they treat women like me who are pro-life and did conceive that way”.
‘Haunted’
In 2014, Lesley McAskie spoke to The Christian Institute’s Choose Life series about her rape aged 13 and the abortion that followed.
She advised women: “Think twice. Don’t go into having an abortion because it’s a quick fix – it’s not. That abortion experience will stay with you for the rest of your life. It will haunt you”.
“My abortion affected my life for 37 years”, McAskie said. “I got over the rape but I never got over my abortion experience”.